Vineyard & Nantucket Sound

South of the Elizabeth Islands lie the islands themselves — Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket — across the tide-swept waters of Vineyard and Nantucket Sound. This is bigger-water cruising, with real currents at Woods Hole and the Vineyard's rips, and passages that reward settled weather.

The island harbors are destinations: Vineyard Haven and Edgartown, Oak Bluffs' gingerbread scene, and Nantucket thirty miles out to sea. Watch the exposure — several of these face north or run on current — and time your crossings, and you'll reach some of the most storied harbors on the coast.